Sunday, 30 July 2017

Ever since I can remember I have been doing something creative whether it be mixed media, making cards, cross stitch, painting or drawing. Today's prompt for the Artsy Circles is stitching. So I combined my past love of making crosses with my current love of making mixed media and produced my Artsy Circle for the facebook group Soul Sisters.

I started out with my gesso covered circle. I prepared 6 circles, really should get some more cut and prepared because I am having so much fun.

The next step was using my stencil to create the circles. Once the texture paste dried I then stitched the crosses. I only had two size needles at hand, one was a tiny cotton needle and the other was a tapestry needle. The tiny needle was just too small and the stitching would have not really shown up. The tapestry needle really was too big but I decided to use it any way. I was really disappointed with the holes that it left but as you can see they don't show up on the final piece its just more texture.

Next I added my colour

My final layer for the circle was the gesso, I originally applied it with a palette knife but before it was dried I wiped it away. To apply the gesso I used my fingers.

Thursday, 27 July 2017

I am really enjoying creating the Artsy Circles, I think I am stepping out of my comfort zone, still no idea what my style is but that's ok, I don't need to know.

So the prompt for today is Butterflies. I love butterflies, along with tulips they are my most favourite things. In saying that you would not believe the trouble I had creating the circle for today. First I was looking for something that I thought I had thrown out and in the end I had just transferred it to another draw, 1/2 an hour I spent looking and then it wasn't right. Secondly, after I realise that what I thought was a good idea and it wasn't I then spent ages going through all my stamps and stencils to find what I did have.

Finally I created a circle that I am really, really happy with.

I started off with a piece of heavy water colour paper that I put through my bigshot with a circle die that has a diameter of 10.4 cm, which I then put gesso on both sides.

For my background colour I mixed clear gesso with Frank Garcia artisan powder and applied it with my palate knife, making sure that I had texture and not just an all over colour.

Making sure that the gesso layer was dry with my archival ink and stamp I added another layer.

It is all about layers, through a stencil I added some paint in a contrasting colour.

Next I added white gesso to just tie it altogether, then I got out my stabilo all pencil to grunge it up.

Ok so this is where I forgot to take photos as I was very involved in my creative process. Once I made it grungy, I then stamped the butterflies all over the surface making sure that they were going in different directions and that I had some flying off the page and flying on to the page. I then scraped another light layer of white gesso over my stamping. Using my stabilo all to grunge it up some more. Finally I added my white circle, embossed the image, used my stabilo all to grunge it up again. Lastly I added the three quotes.

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Are you a member of the facebook group Soul Sisters? It is affiliated with the shop Art and Soul Studio. The reason I ask this question is that not only is it a wonderfully supportive group but they also have twice weekly prompts to get you creating. The prompts are for a project called Artsy Circles, using the prompt you can create anything that you like as long as the substrate is a circle.

A couple of weeks back the prompt was stencil. I used two, one from The Crafters Workshop - Mini Cubist and another from Scrap Fx - Day Dreamer. I love stencils, for me it is an addiction, that I just cant get over.

In my stash I had some gelli prints that I had done a little while ago. This is what I decided to use as my background. I attached the circle to my print with matte medium.

Once I decide which way I liked the texture of my gelli print I then used my tcw stencil and dina wakley paint to add some colour.

I used versamark ink through my Scrap Fx Stencil so that I could emboss the image. I was so cross with myself as I used some tape to hold down my circle so it didn't move but then I went and ripped the print in two places when I removed the tape. I decided not cover them up, it just adds to the journey the Artsy Circle took me on

Here is a close of the embossed image.

The final step was to attach the words and add a little colour.

Products that can be found in the Art and Soul Studio shop are listed below

Monday, 24 July 2017

This was a really hard collection to use as I hadn't used something like this before. It had lots of yummy papers but also a huge range of stickers and chipboard accents. I really had to think about what I wanted to create. In the end I create a photo frame and a set of three cards.

Below you will find close ups of one of the cards and the frame. If you would like to see them in their entirety and the other two cards please pop on over the Shop and Crop Scrapbooking blog.

Saturday, 15 July 2017

Lately I have been struggling with my inner art demons, they are telling me that what I create is not good enough. They are telling me that I should give up and choose another hobby. Sometimes it is hard not listen to them when they are very, very loud. Most times I am able to turn then off, but lately it's been rather difficult. This morning I put them back in their sound proof box and proved to them and me I am good enough. I think I created one of my favourite pieces that I have ever made. It is an art journal page that I created for Art and Soul Studio.

Here are some close ups, if you would like to see the entire page and my process please follow the link to the blog.

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

I think I may have found a new product to love, the Marabu Art Spray. They are quick drying and waterproof. A lot of the sprays currently on the market are not waterproof so when you add water to the substrate they will reactivate, but not these.

Below are some photos of a play session that I had fun with. To see the full set of photos please pop on over the Art and Soul Studio Blog.

The colours I used are aquamarine, bordeaux, and aubergine and are available in the shop where you can find all 25 colours.

Monday, 10 July 2017

Have you seen the challenge that Shop and Crop Scrapbooking have running? If not here is a link to the post on the blog, where you will find lots of inspiration from the Design Team. To enter you need to belong to our Facebook group and add your creation into the correct album. You have until the end of the month to do so.

The challenge is a mood board

How much fun can you have with this, we would love to see what you create.

I took my inspiration from the colour palette and the quote and created a journal page. Here are some close up of the texture I was able to create. If you would like to see my process then please pop on over to Shop and Crop Scrapbooking Blog (see link above).

Sunday, 9 July 2017

The prompt for today is book pages. Now I know this can cause some people to shudder when they think about people ripping a book and if this is you please still play along but find a piece of cardstock that looks like a book page. I have an old text book that is filled with Shakespeare's plays that I brought from an op shop for $5, I am sure it will last me a life time.

I started with a piece of heavy watercolour paper that I cut with my metal circle die through my bigshot. The circle is 10.3cm in diameter which I have then put gesso on both sides.

I decided that I was going to cover the surface of my paper with the book page, at first I was going to run it through my bigshot but I vetoed that idea. I put glue on my watercolour paper and then put it straight down onto the book page. Once dry, well what I thought was dry I torn the rest of the page away from the edge of the circle. To make sure that the paper was well attached I used my brayer over the top and bottom.

I let it sit overnight because I had no idea where I was going with this. I thought about drawing on it and actually went ahead and started, that was a complete disaster. I tried to erase my light pencil marks but I torn the page. Once the page was torn I could actually remove the book page from the watercolour paper. The glue wasn't dry, I don't know if this was because I used a glue stick on gesso. So my background on my actual complete circle is different from this picture because I put a new piece book paper down. This time attaching it with matte medium. Using a paint brush I put the matte medium on to my circle then the circle straight on to my book page.

I wanted a garden on my book page. Why you ask? I have no idea its just what I wanted. Looking through my large stash of stamp I found one that I like and knew would work for the idea I had in my head. When stamping I didn't want a dark or perfect image, so I had sure that I stamped on a scrap piece of paper first. Also I had never used this particular stamp from the set so I seasoned it with my ink first.

Once I found the stamp I was going to use I knew that I had some rub-ons that went with this stamp and that is what I used for the middle flower image and dragonfly.

I am not really sure where I was going with the gesso but I went with the flow and ended up with a smaller image but you could still see some of the image underneath.

Using my inktense pencils I coloured my image but I wanted the middle flower to stand out from the rest. I didn't want to use gesso so I was at first a little bit stumped but then I had a brain wave of using my artisan powders from Prima to dull the image. I painted the powder over all of my circle and once I was happy with the colour I then recoloured the middle flower. I also used another colour of my artisan powders on the gesso. I like these powders as they have no shimmer. I didn't put them on very heavy so they are really hard to see but they are there.

Using my metal die and bigshot I found the biggest circle, which is 10.3 cm in diameter and cut a piece of heavy watercolour paper. I then put gesso on both sides, this was to help stop the curling of the paper.

To create the background I did it in layers using three different distress stains. I didn't want to put the colour directly on to the circle so I splatted the stains onto my craft mat then sprayed them gentle with water. Once the stains beaded on my mat I dragged and laid my circle into the stain. I did this a number of times with each colour making sure that I dried in between the layers.

Using same three colours I then splattered the colours on top of the background again drying in between the layers.

I loved the background that I created but I needed more and in the end I lost some of the splatters of the stains but that's ok because their are no rules and creating in an adventure. At this stage I needed to add some arrows so with my white pen and arrow stencil I drew the shapes of the different arrows across the surface of my circle.

Being that the prompt was arrows I decided that this was just not enough so before I added my words to the circle with the same white pen I coloured in the arrows to make them stand out.

Sunday, 2 July 2017

I am really excited to share with you this project and tutorial. This project and tutorial is an Arsty Circle. It is a project that has been created for the Art and Soul Studio online store and Soul Sisters facebook group. Arsty Circles is loosely based on the ICAD challenge which is created and run by DaisyYellowArt. ICAD is basically where you create art every day on an index card.The Artsy Circles for Art and Soul is where a prompt is posted in the Soul Sisters facebook group every
Thursday and Sunday,
you can play along or just see what others create.

The only request that we have is that the shape of your substrate is a circle.
This circle can be any size, so if your mojo is overflowing you could have a
huge circle but if you are struggling maybe a 1” circle is all you want to use.

The reason we chose a circle is because a) it’s different and b) Our mantra
(see pinned post) is all about a circle of women.

There are no rules other than you must have fun. The first prompt is Red.Here is what I created

My circle that I am using is 10.3cm in diameter, the only reason it is that size is because that was the largest die that I had. I could have created a bigger circle if I got my silhouette cameo out of the cupboard, but that just seemed too hard.My first step was to cover the back and front of my circle with gesso, I applied this with a palette knife, as I am not a fan of brushstrokes. Using my heat gun I made sure that it was completely dry before I found my favourite stamp Script from Kaisercraft and stamped all over the surface of my circle. I didn't worry about where I was stamping I was just making sure it was covered. Around the edge of my circle I coloured with my Stabilo All and then activate it with a water brush.

Once my I was happy with the black watermarks I made sure it was complete dry I then added bright red paint with my palette knife. I didn't want the paint too thick and I also didn't want it to complete cover the surface. Because I am too impatient I used my heat gun to dry the paint then with an Inktense pencil I added three lots of three triangles (which I activated with water), with my black paint pen I added three lots of five crosses and then lastly I with my white paint pen I added dots to the red paint.

I'm Dee. Welcome to my blog, thank you for stopping by. I am a lover of all things messy, I always seem to have paint or ink on me somewhere. I am a card maker, mixed media artist, art journaller and scrapbooker. If you would like to join me on my creative journey I would love to have you follow along.